The Girl Next Door (Shadow Agents #6)(45)
Author: Cynthia Eden

“I don’t like using a gun for my kills.” Deuce’s voice was low and hard, with a lethal edge. “It’s just not personal enough. Death should be personal, don’t you think?”

Cooper dragged himself to his feet. The bullet was still in him, and the wound burned as the blood dripped down his body.

He stared into Deuce’s eyes.

Deuce smiled. “If you don’t drop your weapon, I’ll kill her right now.”

Cooper let his weapon fall.

“Good,” Deuce praised. The fingers of his left hand were wrapped tightly around Gabrielle’s throat. Too tightly. “Now walk back into your apartment. Nice and slow.”

Keeping his eyes on Deuce and ignoring the pain, Cooper retreated, walking backward into his apartment.

Deuce followed, still with that tight grip on Gabrielle. When they were all inside Cooper’s place, Deuce told Gabrielle, “Lock the door. We want to make sure we don’t have any unwanted guests.”

Cooper saw her fingers tremble as she obeyed.

He could barely contain his fury—and his fear. Deuce had been the one to kill Lockwood? McAdams? The one to attack Rachel?

“You know, perhaps I’ve been wrong all this time…” Now Deuce’s voice was considering. Mild and calm—just the way the guy was when they were playing cards.

Only this wasn’t some card game.

This was life. Gabrielle’s life.

“I thought it was better to kill the women they loved, then let the agents suffer until I put them out of their misery.” Deuce thrust the gun barrel harder against Gabrielle’s temple. “But making you watch while I kill her, oh, I think that is going to be even better…”

* * *

MERCER GLARED AT Thomas Anthony. The agent was wounded, but they’d patched him up.

For the moment.

If Mercer found out that Thomas was the rogue in his group, he’d do more than just wound the guy.

I’ll destroy him.

“I’m not changing my story, Mercer,” Thomas said. The guy’s voice was even. No sign of rage or fear darkened his face. “I went to warn Rachel because I thought she was a target. When I left her, she was fine.”

“And why’d you think she was a target? That part, I just don’t see…”

“Rachel hauled me out of that prison camp. She stayed with me, telling me I had to fight, that I had to live, for nearly eight hours straight.” Thomas stared steadily back at Mercer. “I heard the docs saying I was a dead man. And I heard her—telling me to live. The way I figure it, I owed her.”

Mercer let his brows climb. “You owed her a knife to the chest? That was your way of saying thanks?”

Thomas’s jaw tightened. “I owed her protection. When I heard about the profiler’s theory, I knew I had to warn Rachel.”

“Because you’re in love with her…” He tossed this out, looking for a reaction from the agent.

“No. Because Dylan Foxx is. Why the hell else do you think the guy shot me? When he saw Rachel like that, on the floor and bleeding, he went crazy.”

Mercer was well aware of Dylan’s feelings for Rachel Mancini; he just wanted to see what Thomas would reveal.

“I was trying to help her.” Thomas was repeating the same story, again and again. “Dylan thought I was attacking again, so he shot me. He wasn’t about to let anyone but the doctors get close to his lady.”

Mercer’s eyes narrowed. “I find myself curious…just how did you learn of the profile that Agent Evers was developing? That profile should have been confidential.”

Thomas shrugged. “Deuce told me about it. He said he’d heard the FBI agent talking to you.”

Deuce?

Mercer kept his expression blank.

“Deuce said it looked like the killer was going after the people that the agents cared about, attacking the women they loved first, then taking out the agents.” Thomas rocked forward in his chair. “That’s when I thought of Rachel. I knew about how Dylan felt—hell, how could I not? Have you seen the way the guy watches her? And I thought, hell, if the rogue wants to hurt the EOD, he’d focus on them. He’d take out two agents all at once.”

Only the rogue hadn’t been able to take out Rachel. She’d fought back.

The rogue had been denied his victim.

Would he try to attack her again? Or would he focus on someone else?

Mercer stood and advanced toward the door.

“You believe me, right?” Thomas called out. “Mercer?”

Mercer didn’t respond. He went into the observation room. Two other agents were there—agents whom he trusted: Gunner Ortez and Logan Quinn. “I want to know where Deuce Porter is,” Mercer said. “And I want to know now.”

* * *

RACHEL’S EYELIDS TWITCHED. A soft moan slipped from her lips.

Dylan’s heart raced in his chest. “It’s okay,” he told her, aware that his voice was no more than a rough rasp of sound. “You’re safe.” She was headed into the OR. She shouldn’t even be opening her eyes then.

Not with the drugs that the doctors had given her.

But Rachel was staring up at him. Fear and fury battled in her stare. “D-D…”

“Take it easy,” he told her. “I won’t let anyone hurt you. Not ever again.”

She grabbed for his hand. Her grip was surprisingly strong. “Deuce…”

And as understanding sank into Dylan, her rage became his.

* * *

“WHY?” COOPER GROWLED. He kept his eyes on Deuce. If he looked at Gabrielle, if he saw her fear, he was afraid he’d lose control.

Deuce was hurting her. And Cooper knew that unless he stopped him, Deuce would take pleasure in killing Gabrielle.

That can’t happen. Cooper didn’t want to live in a world that didn’t contain Gabrielle.

She was too important.

She was everything.

“Vivian,” Deuce said softly. “My beautiful Vivian. She’s why.” He lifted the gun a few inches from Gabrielle’s temple.

That’s right. Get the gun off her. Focus on me.

“Do you remember her, Coop? You’d just joined the EOD on that mission.”

Cooper’s guts were twisted in knots. Vivian. Vivian Donaldson. “She was the blonde. She was—”

“Mine!” Deuce screamed at him. The gun went right back to Gabrielle’s temple. “Vivian was mine, and I was hers. We met in the Marines. We joined the EOD together. Our lives were together.” Deuce’s breath heaved out. “Until that mission…that last damn mission that got screwed to hell and back.”